1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to media management and, more particularly, to media management on computing devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, media management application programs operate on personal computers to facilitate storage and playback of media items, such as music. One example of a media management application program is iTunes®, produced by Apple Computer, Inc. A media management application program typically enables its user to browse or search through a collection of media items stored on a personal computer. However, given the popularity of storage and playback of media items from personal computers, it is not uncommon that users store several thousand different media items (e.g., songs) on their personal computer. Still further, the different media items stored on personal computers can be of different media types, including music, video, photos, audiobooks, etc. Hence, there is a need to facilitate searching through such large collections of media items, particularly multiple different types of media items.
FIG. 1 is a screen shot of a conventional media management application (MMA) screen 100. The MMA screen 100 includes a source region 102, a track listing region 104, and a series of browse panes 106. A browse control 108 is utilized to present or remove the series of browse panes 106 from the MMA screen 100. In other words, selecting the browse control 108 causes the series of browse panes 106 to be displayed or not displayed in a toggled fashion. As shown in FIG. 1, the browse panes 106 are displayed. In addition, the browse panes 106 shown in FIG. 1 include a genre pane 106-1, an artist pane 106-2 and an album pane 106-3. Still further, the MMA screen 100 includes a search text box 110. The search text box 110 enables a user of the MMA to enter a search text string (e.g., “you”) into the search text box 110. After a search string has been entered into the search text box 110, a search control 112 can be selected by the user in order to initiate a search. When a search is initiated, media items within a media source (e.g., Library) are searched for the text string. Those of the media items within the media source that include the text string are then listed in the track listing region 104.
Separate and distinct from searching using the search text box 110, the MMA also facilitates a browse process through media items within the media source using the series of browse panes 106. The particular series of browse panes 106 illustrated in FIG. 1 allow a user of the MMA to select a genre, an artist and an album. As the user makes a selection of an artist from the selectable items in the pane 106-2, the track listing region 104 can display those tracks associated with such artist. Similarly, when the user selects an album from the corresponding selectable items within the pane 106-3, the track listing region 104 can display those corresponding tracks for such album.
Additionally, with respect to search capabilities of the MMA, a user can further limit the fields in which the search operation is performed. As shown in FIG. 2, a drop-down menu control 200 can be utilized to present a drop-down menu 202 on the MMA screen 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the drop-down menu 202 lists a series of fields that can be searched for the text string. As a default, all such fields are searched. However, by selecting a different menu item on the drop-down menu 202, the search process can be limited to searching certain fields. As shown in the drop-down menu 202, the available menu items for selection include: “All”, “Artists”, “Albums”, “Composers” and “Songs”.
Although these conventional search and browse capabilities of a media management application are effective for searching or browsing media items of a particular type (e.g., music), when the media management application supports other types of media items, the search operation becomes more difficult. Accordingly, there is a need for improved techniques to facilitate search capabilities of media items, particularly when the media items are of different types of media.